Husband accuses bride of faking terminal cancer to get free wedding

Just a few months after compassionate strangers helped put on a wedding for a young bride in Westchester County who said she was dying of cancer, the groom is accusing her of lying and asking for a divorce.

A newspaper article in the Times Herald-Record in April about Jessica Vega's dying wish for a dream wedding led to an outpouring of support, with strangers offering to pay for everything from the wedding dress and the flowers, to a honeymoon in Aruba.

Vega, 23, told people she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and had less than a year to live. She showed the newspaper a letter from a Dr. Dan Costin, confirming her diagnosis.

A follow-up newspaper article over Labor Day weekend told a different story. Vega's husband, Michael O’Connell, says she faked the cancer diagnosis to elicit sympathy and scam people into helping pay for the wedding. According to the newspaper article, Dr. Crostin's office confirmed that she was never a patient there.

"I thought she was dying and my goal was to give her everything she wanted before she did," O'Connell told the NY Daily News. "Now, I want to see the truth come out. If that means her going to jail, then let her pay for what she did."

O'Connell has filed for divorce and is seeking full custody of their one-year-old daughter. Vega, meanwhile, told the Times Herald-Record that she believes she was misdiagnosed and has gotten healthier since living away from O'Connell because he was physically abusive. She says diet and exercise have also helped.

Vega offered to take Times Herald-Record reporter Doyle Murphy with her to see Dr. Crostin and her new doctor about her medical condition, but later canceled that meeting. Still, Vega's mother told Murphy, "Jessie would never do something so manipulative."

What do you think - Was Vega misdiagnosed or did she make up the cancer story? Leave your comments below.